Biden taps Gene Sperling to oversee rollout of $1.9T in Covid relief
Biden could announce the nomination as soon as Monday afternoon
President Biden tapped Gene Sterling, a former top economic official in the Obama and Clinton administrations, for a role to oversee the enactment of the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
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Sperling spent more than a decade at the highest-levels of government, including twice serving as director of the National Economic Council under both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. He also helped to coordinate the bailout of Detroit automakers in 2008 as a counselor in the Treasury Department under Obama.
“There’s no one who knows how the federal government works better than Gene Sperling, and there’s no one better qualified to take charge of the implementation of the Rescue Plan and make sure it delivers for the American people," a White House official told FOX Business ahead of the announcement.
"He's ready to get to work," Biden said Monday during an event touting the American Rescue Plan. "In fact, he's already hit the ground running."
In the new role, Sperling will be tasked with guiding the implementation of Biden's massive trillion stimulus package, which includes a fresh round of stimulus checks to millions of Americans, a generous one-year expansion of the child tax credit and expanded unemployment benefits through Sept. 6.
It also provides hundreds of billions of dollars in aid for state and local governments, school districts, vaccine distribution efforts and small businesses still reeling from the duel health and economic crises.
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Psaki, last week, told reporters that Biden planned to appoint someone to “run point on implementation." Biden held a similar role in 2009 as vice president, helping to oversee the rollout of Obama's $900 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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Sperling was under consideration to serve as Biden's director of the Office of Management and Budget after the president's first pick, Neera Tanden, failed to secure enough support in the Senate, Politico reported. But the idea of Sperling as OMB director received major pushback from lawmakers, according to Politico, and the White House opted for a different avenue.
Fox News' Mark Meredith contributed to this report